Emerson, essays

Emerson, essays Ralph W. Emerson was a profound American Transcendentalist essayist and poet from the 19th century, he was the father and founder of American Transcendentalism. Furthermore he was the more remarkable philosopher of his century, he was more a philosopher than a literary person. Transcendentalism defined "reason" as the highest human faculty, the individual's innate capacity to grasp beauty and truth by allowing full play to the intellect and emotions. The movement emerged from a small group of intellectuals centered in Concord, Massachusetts, and Emerson proved not only its intellectual leader but its most eloquent voice as well. Emerson posed an uncommon freedom of thought product of his childhood conditions, adult experiences and powerful influences. His family was not exceptionally wealthy, but they remained respected in their community. It was this environment of spirituality that formed his morals and fostered his ardent views on anti-slavery and the women's movement. An experience that left him heartbroken was the death of his wife which inspired him to travel abroad. It was during these travels that Emerson met Coleridge and Wordsworth and was first exposed to English Romanticism literary and intellectual influences. During this time he also began formulating the ideas that would later be born into the essay Self-Reliance. The combination of his wife's death and the exhilaration of travel to distant lands (including Italy, France, England, and Scotland), provided the feelings of independence and strength that emerge in this piece. He had other influences in his ideas: the believe in intuition fr om the Neo-Platonism and the Yankee Pragmatism. Emerson's writing style can be labeled unconventional. Indeed he comes across as a writer more familiar with the conventions of public speaking than the protocol of literary form. In fact, his writing fluctuates like a conversation, often appearing to become tangent...